1.
In 2016, years after her time on Teen Mom ended, for which she is best known, Farrah Abraham suggested she was more famous than Kim Kardashian. “I’ve been beating out Kim on a lot of things,” she said on the Nik Richie Podcast. “I think I’ve surpassed her in some aspects. Then again, I conduct myself and my brand in a different way in my life, in a very different journey. So I think I’m doing very well, and if not, better.” She also said, “I’m not self-absorbed. Now I do acting and I’m doing films and stuff, and people say I’m so selfless, and that’s why I’m so good at acting. They can’t even believe it.”
2.
Controversial director Lars von Trier once told a press conference, “I am the best director in the world.” This came after the polarized reception of his film Antichrist. He also suggested that other directors feel the same. When asked to state other filmmakers he liked, he said, “All the others are overrated, so that’s quite simple.”
3.
Tom Cruise isn’t delusional when it comes to his star power, but the power of Scientology. He once said of the religion, “We are the authorities on getting people off drugs, we are the authorities on the mind, we are the authorities on improving conditions…we can rehabilitate criminals…we can bring peace and unite communities.” This came from a weird promotional video he made for Scientology in 2004, which leaked in 2008. He also made this baffling claim about car crashes.
4.
People were not thrilled when they woke up and discovered U2’s newest album, Songs of Innocence, had been downloaded onto their Apple devices without them having actually chosen to download it. The moment was quickly mocked and memed to the point where lead singer Bono had to apologize for being so delulu he thought everyone wanted (or at least wouldn’t mind) the band’s newest album. “I’m sorry about that. I had this beautiful idea… might have gotten carried away with it ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of thing. A drop of megalomania, a touch of generosity, a dash of self-promotion and deep fear that these songs that we poured our life into over the last few years might not be heard. There’s a lot of noise out there. I guess we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it,” Bono told fans.
5.
Kanye has always had a God complex. In 2013, he said, “I am the number one most impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare in the flesh.” Also in 2013, he compared himself to Picasso, Michelangelo, Basquiat, Walt Disney, and Steve Jobs, and in 2016, audio surfaced of him backstage at SNL saying he was more influential than Stanley Kubrick, Picasso, and the Apostle Paul. He also cast himself as God or a god-like figure through his music, even before The Life of Paolo.
6.
Jay-Z is also guilty of comparing himself to God, but it’s not quite as bad. Still, his nickname HOVA is a reference to Jehovah, or God. He explained to NPR that the nickname started after a friend called his rapping a religious experience. “One time, I was recording in the studio and I wasn’t writing, and one of my friends was like, man, this is like, how you doing that, man? God must really love you. It’s like a religious experience, man. And then he was like, J-hova. And then, you know, it started out as a joke, and then it just stuck.” His song “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” also includes a lyric about being the “eighth wonder of the world.”
7.
Speaking of Jay-Z…after activist Harry Belafonte said high-profile artists like Jay-Z had “turned their back on social responsibility,” Jay-Z defended himself by suggesting he was a symbol. “I’m offended by that because, first of all, and this is going to sound arrogant, but my presence is charity. Just who I am,” he said. “Just like Obama’s is. Obama provides hope. Whether he does anything, the hope that he provides for a nation, and outside of America is enough.”
8.
Jojo Siwa once declared she wanted to “start a new genre of music” called “gay pop.” Not only has her music career itself fallen short of anything genre-creating, but “gay pop” is already very much a genre that has existed for quite a long time.
9.
Zara Larsson said on the podcast The Diary Of A CEO that her dream was to have a number one album worldwide, a stadium tour, and a helicopter, and to be at a Beyoncé level of success. Joking that she truly wanted “world domination,” Larsson said, “I think I’m a little entitled to success, and I think if I ever, let’s say, get a Grammy, I won’t feel like ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe this is happening’ – it’s more like ‘Finally, it took long enough.'” She then said, “Since I first understood what fame was, I always said, ‘I’m going to be more famous than Elvis Presley.'” However, she added that she’d changed her perspective now as fame is “a form of a prison.”
10.
In perhaps one of the most delusional quotes on this list, Jason Derulo once claimed that he made TikTok “the app that it is today,” saying it was just an app for posting videos of yourself dancing until he started “posting things that was more fun.” He said he decided to be a leader and try something new on the app and thinks “it changed the app forever.”
11.
After dealing with perceived backlash for his faith*, Chris Pratt once compared himself to Jesus. “That’s nothing new, that’s nothing new, you know?” he said of criticism, then quoted scripture. “‘If I was of this world, they would love me just like that but as it is, I’ve chosen out of this world.’ That’s John 15:18 through 20. That’s the way it is, nothing new, 2,000 years ago they hated him, too.” Him being Jesus, of course.
12.
Donald Glover also compared himself to Jesus, after saying that there was nothing he was bad at. “Probably just people. People don’t like to be studied, or bested. I’m fine with it. I don’t really like people that much. People accept me now because I have power, but they still think, ‘Oh, he thinks he’s the golden flower of the Black community, thinks he’s so different.’ But I am, though!” He then said, “I feel like Jesus. I do feel chosen. My struggle is to use my humanity to create a classic work — but I don’t know if humanity is worth it, or if we’re going to make it.” While Glover is undeniably talented, the Jesus comparison went a bit far.
13.
In a post addressing backlash to her comments on Israel and Palestine, Amy Schumer also addressed critics who called her a “failed comic,” writing, “I’m the most successful female comedian of all time.” While Schumer certainly has enjoyed quite a lot of success in Hollywood, the claim garnered intense backlash from those pointing out the careers of famous female comics before Schumer.
14.
Nicki Minaj similarly once referred to herself as one of the top ten rappers of all time, male or female, dead or alive. Saying you’re in the top ten now is one thing, but all time???
15.
We can’t make this list without including former president Donald Trump. My favorite is probably the time Trump claimed that his cameo helped Home Alone 2 do well. After director Chris Columbus claimed Trump had “bullied” his way onto the film (by only letting them film at his hotel, The Plaza, if he could make a cameo), Trump responded, “That cameo helped make the movie a success, but if they felt bullied, or didn’t want me, why did they put me in, and keep me there, for over 30 years? Because I was, and still am, great for the movie, that’s why! Just another Hollywood guy from the past looking for a quick fix of Trump publicity for himself!” He also claimed they’d begged him to be in it and that his “little cameo took off like a rocket.”
16.
In another example, after Princess Diana died in 1997, Donald Trump went on the Howard Stern Show to say he thought he could’ve gotten Diana to sleep with him. He also appeared to suggest that if she’d been with him, he could’ve saved her from dying. “I know that tunnel in Paris. It’s got, like, a 30-mile limit. If you look at this tunnel – and I really know that tunnel well, I’ve been through that tunnel many times – you can’t go more than like 30, 40 miles an hour. If you’re going 40 miles an hour through that tunnel you’re going fast. These people had to be going at 120-something miles an hour.” He then said that Dodi Fayed, Diana’s then-partner who was in the car with her (but was not driving), was clearly not good for her.
17.
Trump also (falsely) bragged on 9/11 that he now had the tallest building in downtown Manhattan. Calling into a TV station to discuss the attacks, he said, “I mean, 40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan. And it was actually – before the World Trade Center – was the tallest. And then when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest, and now it’s the tallest.”
18.
Speaking of 9/11, Mark Wahlberg once claimed that, “If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn’t have went down like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, ‘OK, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.'”
19.
One more 9/11 one, just because celebs loved to make it about themselves — Sean Penn told Variety that if he were president at the time of 9/11, “I’d have let White House counsel know that they are on vacation. I’m not consulting with them. If I have to go to prison, I’ll go, but I’m going to kill them. I’m killing everyone that did this,” he said. Because apparently Penn is some sort of Liam Neeson–in–Taken–style vigilante.
20.
He *may* have been joking, but Simone Biles’ husband, Jonathan Owens, a safety for the Green Bay Packers, came off a little cocky when talking about dating Biles on a podcast. When asked if he was the catch in their relationship, Owens replied, “I always say that the men are the catch.” He also said he didn’t know who Biles was when they first matched on Raya, but that he saw that “she just had a bunch of followers. So in my mind, I’m like, ‘OK, she’s got to be good.'” Biles is the most decorated US Olympic gymnast and one of the greatest athletes of all time.
21.
Speaking of the Olympics…we have to mention when Andy Cohen asked what Kendall Jenner would do if she weren’t a model, and she said she’d be an Olympic horseback rider as if this were also an achievable, reasonable goal. She also said on her reality show, The Kardashians, “I’m literally built as an athlete. Every blood test I’ve ever done has said that I am like over the normal limit of athleticness.”
22.
Ariana Grande once called herself “the hardest working 23 year old human being on earth” on Instagram, hashtagging the photo of herself “#cute #butalso #CEO #haventsleptinyears.” She deleted the post after people online pointed out that those struggling to provide for their families in minimum-wage jobs were probably working harder.
23.
This isn’t really her fault, but Meghan Markle once claimed that she was told by a South African cast member at The Lion King premiere that because of her royal wedding, people in South Africa “rejoiced in the streets the same we did when Mandela was freed from prison.'” The only South African in the cast claimed to have never met Markle and said that in South Africa, Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry was “no big deal.”
24.
In an example of someone being delusional about their partner, Ben Affleck once called then-partner J.Lo “the greatest performer in the history of the world,” calling her music “brilliant” and pointing to her acting skills as well. While J.Lo is certainly a strong performer, this statement seemed a bit of a stretch, especially as someone who has long faced accusations of lip-synching and having others sing on her records.
25.
Debby Ryan once appeared to vastly overestimate the impact of her Disney Channel show Jesse. Speaking about an upcoming episode of Jesse that was set to feature Jesse’s wedding, Debby Ryan claimed that she was making history (as apparently no other Disney lead had gotten married onscreen…oddly, neither did Ryan’s character, instead saying “no” at the altar).
26.
Patrick J. Adams similarly seemed to overestimate the impact of his show Suits, suggesting that the HBO mega-hit Succession was only so popular and celebrated because Suits existed first. “It’s in New York, we’re dealing with New York. Power brokers, people moving and shaking at the highest levels of New York society,” he said, pointing out a couple of actors and one director/producer who worked on Succession. He called Suits a “predecessor” to Succession, saying of their massive Award show wins, “Yeah, well, they got to be the grown-up” to Suits’ “PG version.” Not only are the two shows vastly different, but Suits was really, really not up to par with Succession.
27.
And finally, we’ll end on one of my favorite examples because it’s just so random. Anyone else remember when Jeremy Renner decided to create his own app? This was something really only the Kardashians were doing around that time. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t a well-received move and was quickly brought down by trolls because it was super easy to impersonate people on it.
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